Little Pitchers have Big Ears

Have you ever heard the saying, “little pitchers have big ears?” It’s used whenever adults want to discuss something, but there are little people around, so the conversation gets delayed or moved someplace private. It never occurred to me that this saying could also pertain to animals!

As an animal communicator, I communicate telepathically with other people’s animals all the time. And I purposefully connect to my animals when I want to ask or tell them something. But I didn’t realize I sometimes communicate telepathically with my animals even when I’m not doing it deliberately. My dog Stella (my little pitcher with big ears) taught me this on our walk recently.

Dogs need to be leashed in Alexandria

We live in Alexandria, Virginia, a suburban neighborhood where dog-walking rules are strict. Unless you’re in a designated dog park, your dog must be on a leash. It makes sense —with so many dogs in such a small area, the rule keeps everyone safe. So I walk my dogs, Tibor and Stella, on leashes.

But I cheat, a little.

Trails in the woods

There are great trails in the wooded area of a local park, where we almost never run into anyone! They’re narrow, so we move through them in a single file. Once we’re farther off the regular path, I let the leashes go.

Tibor leads the way, tail up and smiling as he trots over the next hill. When we come to an “intersection,” Tibor chooses the way for us. If he gets too far ahead, I call, “Tibor! Wait!” He stops, looks at me, and sniffs the vegetation until I catch up.

I’m following behind him, walking or jogging, depending on the trail.

Stella brings up the rear since she is officially known as my slowpoke. Her great love is to sniff a bush every two feet. I look back and yell, “C’mon, Stella, hurry up!” and stomp my feet (in a funny way). That gets her moving again.

Stella doesn’t always listen

If we see deer, Tibor will stop when I ask him to wait. Stella, on the other hand, takes off after them, looking at me, listening as I say, “Stella, stay!” and shaking her head NO. She’s only about a foot off the ground, so once she moves into the woods, I lose track of her. We always meet up after she gets tired of chasing the deer.

I’ve always worried, “What if her leash gets caught on a root?”

When this happens, she never barks. She just waits patiently for me to find her and untangle her. I get worried that I’ll never find her. I secretly wished she would bark when she got stuck, but it hasn’t happened.

Stella changes her behavior

Recently on our last walk before bed, Stella was off leash as we approached home. As usual, Miss Slowpoke really wanted to take her time. Since we live in a quiet neighborhood, and, most nights, since everyone else has already walked their dogs, I drop her leash on the final stretch.

That evening, after checking to see if her favorite person was sitting outside smoking her last cigarette (she wasn’t), Stella started barking! It was unusual because there was no one around to bark at.

I whispered loudly, “Shhh, it’s too late to be barking!” Tibor and I ran over to her, and that’s when we saw her leash caught in a root. She was stuck. She stopped barking as soon as we came over.

The only explanation was Stella that had heard and considered my worries and decided to change her behavior. What a relief!

Service dogs respond to their peoples’ requests

If you’ve read Dogs That Know When Their Owners are Coming Home (Dr. Rupert Sheldrake), you hear stories about people whose service dogs responded to their requests even before they spoke them out loud. I assumed—wrongly—that they were special. Now I know all dogs can respond to what we think if we’ve learned to tap into our intuitive connections with them—even if we’re not deliberately sending them the thought like happened with Stella.

It’s a little weird that my animals are eavesdropping on all my thoughts. Still, I love the outcome!

Have you thought what it would be like to connect intuitively with your animals?

I teach an online program, UConnect, to help you do just that! It’s a small class so there’s lots of chances to receive individual attention and ask questions.

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